Willow-bark-stripping machine



G. GERACE.

WILLOW BARK STRIPPING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.I7. 1921.

Patented Dec. 13, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l- 1 a d? II www- H G. GERACE.

WILLOW BARK STRIPPING MACHINE.

AFPFICATION FlLED AUG. 17, 1921- Patented Dec. 13, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET- 2.

UNITED STATS oics.

GAETANO GER/ACE, OFWINDSOR, ONTARIO, CANADA}.

WILLOlfT BARK-STRIPPING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented D68. 13, 1921.

Application filed August 17,1921. Serial No. 493,137. r

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, GAnTANo GnRAon, a

subject of the King of Italy, residing at WVindsor, in the county of Essex and Province of Ontario, Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements lIltL Willow-Bark-Stripping Machine, of which the following is a s ecification.

. My invention re ates to improvements in bark strippers, and more particularly to machines for the purpose of stripping the bark from willow stems to be used in the manufacture of wicker ware and the like, and consists essentially of a roller'press, a

pair of opposed scrapers tensioned together and yieldable to the willow passing between, and an endless belt carrying a plurality of yieldable blades operating transversely of the machine, said blades being rigid with the-belt and projected at right angles therefrom and extending to a point just beyond the contact of said opposed scrapers.

The invention has for its object to provide a machine for effectively and efliciently removing the barkfrom.willow,xa nd at the same time to provide such a machine which" Fig. 3 is a front elevation of Fig. 2 show ing the framework in section; and

Fi 4 is a sectional elevation taken on the,

line -X in Fig. 1.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

The framework of the machinecomprises a plurality of uprights A connected at the top by transverse cross members B, and interposed dividing blocks D.

The said uprights are vertically slotted as indicated b 2, to accommodate the vertically operative presses comprised of an uppertransverse cross head 3 provided with a leaf spring 4 bearing against a lower cross head carrying journal boxes 5 in which is "journaled the shaft .6 carrying the-rubber roller 7 for example. The outer end parts of said shaft have rigid thereon pinions 8 meshed with and driven by pinions 9 mounted on the shaft 10 having bearing in the rigid journal box 11 and provided with a similar rubber roller 12 engaging the surface of the formerly mentioned roller.

The shafts 10 extend to the left of the .machine beyond the pinions 9 and are provided with sprockets 13. A sprocket chain ,14 passes around the two end sprockets 13 of the machine, engaging the intermediate sprockets, as illustrated in Fig. 1, and is driven by the pulley. 15 rigid on the shaft carrying the forward sprocket, which is It will be driven by the belt for example. noted therefore that the rollers in each upright are rotated simultaneously. The tension of the upper and lower rollers is governed and adjusted by hand press screws 17 threaded-inthe cross. members 13..

18 are shelves, supported by brackets leading to and from the rollers 7 12.

20 and 21 are top and bottom scrapers respectively having surface contact with each 7 other, the contacting edges thereofbeing ser' rated or notched as indicated by 22, the" notches being staggered in relation as illustrated, constituting flat staggered scraping teeth. The upper or top scraper 20 is dovetailed into a holder 23, and both scrapers are provided with perpendicular registered holes through which pass the retainingrods 24 which are removably secured to a block D by their hooked ends 25. t

The holes in the lower scraper are some. what larger than those in the upper for. a

purpose which will hereinafter be apparent. The upper scraper is tensio'nedagainst the lowerby means of the spiral push springs 26 which are inserted between the two center cross members B.

The lower scraper 21 is pivotally connected at one end thereof to the adjacent up-' right A, as indicated at 27, and is connected at its oppositeiend to a foot pedal 28 by means of a connecting link 29. The said foot pedal is pivoted to the adjacent upright at 30 and is upwardly tensioned by the spiral push spring 31. It will here be seen that the lower scraper is normally tensioned against the upper scraper, butmay be disen-- gaged by pressure upon the pedal 28.

An endless belt 31 is carried by pulleys 32 V,

rigid on shafts 38, 34, running longitudi portions of the scrapers 20, 21.

nally of the machine, on theleft and right sidesthereof respectively, ournaled in bearings, 35, 36, respectively. The said belt is provided with a plurality of resiliently yieldable metallic strippers 37 which project normally at right angles therefrom and which when traveling uppermost of said pulleys their upper ends project slightly above the horizontal plane of the toothed The pulley 32 on the right of the machine mounted on stripped from the stems by the action of the scrapers aforesaid while the stems are forcibly passed therebetween by the section of the plurality, of rollers.

' Subsequently to the stems passing between the scrapers, the strippers 3Trelieve'them of any remaining bark that has escaped the act1on of the scrapers. The stripped bark is then earned between the remaining rollers, afterwhich it is expelled from the Y machine in a completely stripped condition.

Having now fully described my invention,-

.vhat I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

'In a machine of the class described, the combination with a suitable frame, a horizont ally arranged plurality of paired conveying rollers journaled 'in the frame,

means for actuating said rollers simultaneously in a common direction, an upper transversely mounted scraper having a notched.

lower edge and tensioned downwardly, a

lower scraper' mounted parallel with the 7 upper scraper and in a common vertical plane and having a notched upper edge tensionally engaging the notched edge of the upper scraper, means for separating said scrapers when required, a horizontal belt running transversely of the frame and mounted on pulleys journaledtherein, a plurality of tensionally yieldable metallic strippers secured to said belt at spaced intervals and extending 'normally at right angles therefrom, those of saidplurality of strippers traveling upwardly of said pulleys erf tending slightly above the horizontal plane of the notched edges of'said scrapers, means for actuating said belt simultaneously with said rollers, and meansv for tensioning each pair of said rollers r I V In testimony whereof I'have. aflixed my signature. v v GAETANO GERACE. Witnesses: v

F RONCHE GUMALDI, T. VERIS AIPEP. 

